Opinion

The left’s complaints about cultural appropriation keep Americans separated rather than united.

Last month, Rep. Amanda Stuck and I announced the creation of the Wisconsin Future Caucus, a bipartisan group of Wisconsin state legislators under the age of 40. The purpose of this group is to work together to find common ground on critical issues that affect Wisconsin.

His regent-appointees are undoing decades of excellence at the university.

System needs reform. Proposed law is badly needed.

It does not seem prudent to change the definitions and rules that define a co-op for the benefit of one organization that wishes to retain the advantages they have enjoyed while all their members were equal.

Student loan debt continues to grow in Wisconsin, and the student loan borrowers who worked hard to get their education and took on the personal responsibility to pay for it are still being treated unfairly by the system. Walker telling people to “call a bank” wasn’t a solution then, and it’s not a solution now.

Clinton’s failings, James Comey’s 11th-hour letter, Russian interference, fake news, sexism, racism, and a struggling economy in key swing states all contributed to Trump’s victory. We will never be able to assign exact proportions to all the factors at play. But a year later, interviews with voters, organizers, and election officials reveal that, in Wisconsin and beyond, voter suppression played a much larger role than is commonly understood.

I am optimistic for the future of Wisconsin’s rural communities. I believe Governor Walker’s budget makes a strong investment in our rural communities and Wisconsin’s future.

Tax cuts will cost trillions. Despite Treasury Secretary Mnuchin’s claims, tax cuts do not pay for themselves.

The GOP tax cuts are not paid for and will add at least $1.5 trillion to the national debt. Worse, all the GOP proposed individual tax cuts (mostly for the wealthy) and corporations add up to about $5.5 trillion. The tax cuts will make America a plutocracy.

More than a week ago Puerto Rico was left completely devastated by super-Hurricane Maria. 3.4 million U.S. citizens, including thousands of veterans, have been left to live in an unfolding dire nightmare.

Trump is still trying to sabotage the Affordable Care Act.

Wisconsin congressional Republicans are not facing reality. Trump is unhinged.

Suits by citizens now trying to restrict public information.

Brian Fraley and Lisa Manna from Edge Messaging discussed the latest polling by Charles Franklin at Marquette University Law School.

Walker administration won’t release details of massive subsidy until after contract is signed.

They’ll do anything to keep arguing, even switching ideological positions.

Or how Act 10’s exemption and police-fire benefits are driving a city budget crisis.

Odds are slim. But the added turnout for those races could help re-elect Tammy Baldwin.

Bradley Foundation and Kochs buy a new UW-Madison economics institute.

Actually his fire fighter cuts will probably have no impact on safety.

Too many judges, too many indigent jailed. Reform long overdue.

Gives little to charity, report shows. Milwaukee is much more generous than state.

His decision on gerrymandering case could ruin Supreme Court’s reputation.

Republicans never had an actual plan. Bernie Sanders might learn from that.

Questionable research shows 'Right to Carry' reduces crime. Here’s the full story.

Higher income get more than low income, Waukesha more than Milwaukee.

Addiction is a cruel illness. And it knows no boundaries. That fact has never been more evident in Wisconsin, where one prominent Republican legislator’s daughter and one former state Democratic Party executive director have been in the news relating to apparent overdose deaths.

Donald Trump is clearly unfit for the office he holds and poses an immediate threat to the safety and security of this country, which is why I support his impeachment.

There are good reasons for concern about the regents’ new freedom of expression policy.

Vos is right that the pet concerns of three senators shouldn’t hold up an entire two-year spending plan. But Vos has been far less distressed about terrible government when it’s promised to benefit his political fortunes.

Walker doesn’t appear to have spent any time at the prison, with the prison’s inmates and staff. And that appears to be true of the vast majority of the state’s 132 lawmakers, too, according to Department of Corrections visitor logs.

For voters looking for an actual democrat among the Democrats, though, there is no more important plan than one to take the once-a-decade redistricting process out of the direct control of politicians.

With a large field, a truly terrible candidate could win with a small plurality of the vote and subsequently be hammered by Walker in the general election. If they want even the faintest of chances, the Democrats either need fewer candidates or one plausible one.

As was the case in the 16th century, the world will have to adapt to the influx of unreliable information. Hopefully, trusted sources will once again form to make sense of what's real and what's not.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos' shot at the Senate didn't have the wit we associate with the great political insulters of history. But without politicians bickering, we'd be left with a bloodless, anodyne brand of politics, and who wants to watch that?

Quantifying partisan makeup through a single formula is like trying to judge a baseball team simply through analytics and statistics.

If politics is indeed a war, conservatives have suddenly become the peace-loving flower children of the new generation. Rather than stand and fight against the hostile takeover of the Republican Party by Donald Trump's corrosive forces, stalwart conservatives are dropping their weapons and high-tailing it from the battlefield.

Walker boasting about increased education spending rings a discordant note for right-wingers who would rather see a more efficient government than one that is simply bigger.

If altering the mechanics of a semi-automatic rifle to make it automatic is illegal, then how can it possibly be legal to purchase a $50 part to do the same?

For more traditional conservatives horrified by Trump's behavior, his level-headed judicial picks make the rest of his tenure even more frustrating.

One of Trump's most attractive features to his followers is that he's a "straight talker" who doesn't care who he offends. But he's unmasked himself as one of the most thin-skinned, overly-sensitive politicians America has ever seen.

By passing the tax cuts President Trump praised in Indianapolis, Congress can right a longstanding wrong and put the wind back into our economic sails.

The BDS movement exclusively targets the world’s only Jewish state, Israel, for criticism while ignoring conflicts and countries engaged in major human rights violations around the world.

Federal regulations force school districts to spend that money or face funding cuts.

If you really wanted to make Americans safer you would ban semi-automatic weapons and forget about the bump stocks, which of course would be useless if they had nothing to modify.

A political culture in which repeal of the Second Amendment is on the table is one in which stricter gun safety laws are politically feasible even if actual repeal never happens.

In June, I introduced a ‘Zero-based Budget’ bill with Representative Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield, that provides greater transparency and enables the legislature to exercise its oversight function within the state budget process. Under this legislation, each state agency will have to review how all of their dollars are spent and justify those expenses against the agency’s core function to the legislature.

I'd much rather be known as the dairy state than drive around with a license plate that says "Home of corporate giveaways."

Those who were here during the 1960s and well into the '90s remember Durkin as the fireball unionist who got Madison's firefighters a more sensible workweek and decent wages and then as the fire chief who tore down barriers and conquered prejudices by hiring women and minorities to make our department one of the most diverse fire departments in America.

In contrast to today's legislative crusades to protect right-wingers when they speak on campus, the conservatives of the '50s and '60s were busy trying to keep left-wingers from speaking at all.

It's well past time to get this idea on the front burner and design an uncomplicated, bipartisan system that does work for everyone.

Well, perhaps those three state senators singled out by fellow Republican and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos this past week aren't "terrorists" but, let's be honest here, they sure are experts at throwing bombs.

The swamp keeps getting deeper and deeper.

There's a growing sense among some scholars who make a living studying American government that the biggest danger to the Constitution is not limited to Donald Trump — it's also endangered by America's widening economic inequality.

The country is being damaged by a government that really doesn't want to govern, but because everyone is being distracted by Trump and his tweets, few are paying attention.

Scott Walker says he appreciates your hard work, even when his actions show he really doesn't.

Before redistricting, Republicans controlled the State Assembly 59 to 39 (with 1 independent who voted with Republicans) in 2010. The so-called gerrymandering rendered their advantage in the next election to 60-39 — a pickup of one seat.

It is my hope that when Whitford v. Gill goes before the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, party politics will be the last thing on their mind. Instead, let’s hope they put American citizens first and ensure every American the Constitutional voting rights our forefathers endowed us with.

We’ll forget you existed, Stephen Paddock. You are now the worst mass shooter in U.S. history, but we’ll forget you.

The proposed Marsy’s Law has the understandable goal of codifying victims’ rights in the Wisconsin state constitution, but much of this bill is unworkable and some of it is unconstitutional.

The media now is having its feet held to the fire even as it wonders why establishment Republicans are not holding Trump’s feet to the fire the way a few respected senators have. There’s a sad, simple reason: Upcoming elections, one as soon as December, will keep political headlines percolating and the GOP fence-sitting.

Trade unions are constantly buffeted by financial power plays. In Wisconsin they are being branded as victims of political expediency by the progressive community yet supported by many members because they fight for jobs. The contention centers on two big projects – Milwaukee’s new $500 million arena for the Bucks and the Foxconn project.

Facebook and social media in general have developed an unprecedented power that governments and their citizens are finally seeing not as a salvation but as a threat.

We need to talk more about what triggers the kind of outrage that sticks to Weinstein and Cosby but not to Donald Trump. If anything positive comes out of this case it is turning our glares at the justice system.

Trying to quash protest is like holding back flood water with your thumb. Reasonable steps should be taken to guarantee everyone’s personal safety. After that, let the sifting and winnowing commence, and freely.

Good government is the business of every citizen. What we do can make a difference. So although I’m leaving the platform that the Journal Sentinel has generously given me for 35 years, I’ll still do what I can along with my fellow citizens to keep a light on government.

Pushing project back decades, adding billions in costs, hurting metro area.

Wisconsin’s weak gun laws enable gun traffickers, and other criminals and dangerous individuals to purchase, possess, and use guns in crimes in cities, towns, and neighborhoods outside Wisconsin.

There is no way that a decent society rations out who gets health care by whether one is employed, or insured, or financially able.

The court system was whittled down to a twig that can be easily bent to accommodate the needs of Foxconn Technology Group.

We must demand that our congressional representatives put an end to the legalization of weapons that can cause mass destruction.

The Flambeau mine in Ladysmith can, and should, serve as a useful example of the possibility of safe mining and strong environmental stewardship.

It’s not every day that a congressman from Kentucky and a farmer from Wisconsin ignite a national conversation on a specific issue. However, when it comes to industrial hemp no two states are more historically intertwined.

Republican Tom Tiffany targets Public Trust doctrine that protects our waters.

Schimel-Pruitt are a solid chamber of commerce tag team when it comes to rolling back clean air and water protections.

He's moving to shift from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources the oversight of controversial, large-scale, water-demanding and manure-producing animal feeding and breeding operations to the more industry-focused Wisconsin Department of Ag, Trade and Consumer Protection, (DATCP), where all sorts of ag and dairy promotion and marketing is centered.

Walker will carry a host of problems into his re-election bid.

Call it business as usual in the state allegedly open for business.

Wisconsin water belongs to everyone and we need to do a helluva better job protecting the water and our rights to it, because clean water and water rights in Wisconsin are being ignored, contaminated, twisted or flat-out heisted.

Court-ordered redistricting would re-establish on paper some fairness to Wisconsin elections and public life, but how do you get back or repair a decade of punitive one-party Republican rule that rigged the system and took over?

Wisconsin is leading the way, and Congress must now follow suit by passing tax reform legislation that will deliver results to improve the lives of citizens here and around the country, while giving a much needed hand up to our businesses.

The Milwaukee building’s design is to keep their clients away from the pro-life sidewalk counselors and protesters, according to the top abortionist at the site, Kathy King. Spending $8 million just to avoid protesters is not evidence that Planned Parenthood is hurting for cash.

Conservative commentator and Townhall.com News Editor Katie Pavlich was able to speak about the right to carry guns on college campuses without interruption Tuesday night at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Sure, some people will gnash their teeth if their special perks are tampered with. But from a broader tax policy standpoint, this is the right thing to do, and if presented correctly, the smart thing to do from a political standpoint.

Unfortunately, only 11 percent of U.S. employees have access to paid family leave through their jobs, which means millions of workers are forced to choose between family health obligations and the income they need to cover basic expenses.

Nineteen states have called for a Constitutional amendment that would overturn the disastrous Citizens United decision. Rep. Scott Allen won't even allow a public hearing on a resolution that would let Wisconsinites vote on this core issue of our time. 

How much longer we can survive really depends on whether or not USDA decides that organic rules need to be followed by everyone — no matter how big their farm is, or what country they farm in.

Unless the court is prepared to eliminate partisan redistricting, it is not equipped to create the strict standards necessary to avoid endless litigation.

Cory Mason takes office Nov. 7. On that day, he said, the work of "rebuilding the middle class" begins — from the ground up.

Ryan will go only so far as the NRA allows, which, at this point, is toward a constrained discussion of regulating “bump stock” devices, which modify rifles so that they can fire bullets as rapidly as machine guns. Beyond that tangential response, the speaker is determined to change the topic.

Walker has certainly set himself up for a Republican primary challenge. The Foxconn deal has been criticized by conservative business analysts and even by right-wing groups that usually cover for the governor.

State Treasurer Matt Adamczyk recently roused himself from the sidelines of state governance and called on legislators to penalize Dane County for allocating $55,000 to fund a UW-Madison study of how Wisconsin’s voter ID law influences voter participation and turnout.

Falling enrollments at the 13 UW Colleges and mission confusion at UW Extension propelled UW President Ray Cross to embark on a reorganization of those two cornerstones of the UW System (UWS).

Health care reform and UW reorganization are big issues Walker and his opponent may punt.

To make our elections run securely and accurately, we need to repair the damage to the Wisconsin Elections Commission caused by Gov. Scott Walker’s veto last month, which removed five necessary staff from the commission.

State personal income growth trails nation, but that means more federal funds for Medicaid.

Liberals' desire to live near their government jobs, with public transit, neighborhood public schools and government funded recreation facilities have surrendered vast swaths of the state to Republican voters.

The Vos incident is just the tip of the iceberg of very public Republican in-fighting. That starts right at the top--with President Donald Trump putting anyone that doesn't bow to his wishes or that criticizes his outrageous comments and twitter rants on full blast in all forms of the media.

We want economic development. We want jobs. But we are unwilling to sacrifice the health of life-sustaining natural resources — earth, air and water. Without these, we cease to exist.

Through the years, some co-ops have chipped away at the human element -- trust -- that kept it all together. Restoring that trust is the remedy for what ails our cooperatives. Seeking a legislative end-run that will diminish cooperative trust even further is not.

At the 86th annual Wisconsin Farmers Union State Convention this past January, members of the family farm organization named nonpartisan redistricting as a special order of business for 2017, voicing support for the creation of a nonpartisan entity to perform all future redistricting for city, county, state and federal offices in the state of Wisconsin.

Audit members are united in their commitment that problems at King be resolved. Our Audit Committee will continue efforts to ensure veterans’ homes are adequately funded and staffed.

State requirements for nurses, plumbers, CPAs and other jobs could be scrapped.

Hemp in Wisconsin is a crop whose time has come. Passage of SB 119 will begin the work of bringing back Wisconsin’s hemp industry. Let’s make 2017 the year of hemp.

As soon as Republicans took control of the Legislature and governorship in Wisconsin, we hit the ground running to advance pro-life causes and protect the most vulnerable among us.

The Trump administration is playing games with American lives.

I am disheartened and frustrated that Gov. Walker chose to use Domestic Violence Awareness Month to score his own political points.

Donald Trump appears bent on achieving one major objective, at least for him: Dismantling the nation’s current health care system – no matter what the cost.

There was a time when environmental protection was a shared ethic amongst Democrats and Republicans.

What steps do progressives in Wisconsin need to take?

A bill to enshrine victims’ rights into the Wisconsin Constitution has one item in it that would blatantly violate the U.S. Constitution.

Rep. Scott Allen denies request to put advisory referendum on amending the U.S. Constitution to overturn Citizens United on the Assembly Committee on Constitution and Ethics agenda.

Earlier this month at oral argument of the likely precedent-setting Wisconsin gerrymandering case, Republican justices displayed an obtuse mind-set revealing an incapacity to consider social scientific findings in determining whether a statute is unconstitutional.

To emphasize the importance of our nation’s water infrastructure, on Oct. 12 communities across the nation will participate in the U.S. Water Alliance’s campaign, Imagine a Day Without Water.

As the details of tax reform emerge in the coming weeks, I hope we can approach the debate with an open mind before retreating to our respective partisan corners.

Wisconsin’s whole population should be made eligible to get health insurance through the BadgerCare program.

Today, there’s a new priority on the left: making sure no one in America can claim they have anything meaningful in common with anyone else who doesn’t look exactly like them.

In "Two Minutes with Mitch" radio personality Mitch Henck gives his two cents on revelations that Democrats helped fund research that led to a dossier about Donald Trump's ties to Russia.

In "Two Minutes with Mitch" radio personality Mitch Henck gives his two cents on a UW-Madison voter ID study that was funded by Dane County.

In "Two Minutes with Mitch" radio personality Mitch Henck asks: Have we ever been this polarized?

In "Two Minutes with Mitch" radio personality Mitch Henck gives his two cents on charges against Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, and Manafort's business associate, Rick Gates.

In "Two Minutes with Mitch" radio personality Mitch Henck says it's a little late for people such as Republican Sen. Jeff Flake to notice Donald Trump's boorish behavior.

In "Two Minutes with Mitch" radio personality Mitch Henck gives his two cents on an idea to remove the slogan “America’s Dairyland" from Wisconsin's vehicle license plates.

In "Two Minutes with Mitch" radio personality Mitch Henck gives his two cents on Steve Bannon and his war with the GOP establishment.

In "Two Minutes with Mitch" radio personality Mitch Henck gives his two cents on the rich and tax cuts.

Madison columnist Emily Mills and gun rights advocate Nik Clark, the founder of Wisconsin Carry, share two perspectives about what the U.S. should do, if anything, about guns.

WISCAPE Managing Director Noel Radomski offers commets, questions and ideas regarding the merger proposal and asks whether it is time for a citizen's commission on post-secondary education.

Before the UW System Board of Regents vote on the proposal in November? -- or, more likely, in spring 2018? -- several critical questions should be asked, discussed, and answered.

Living in a free society rooted in individual liberty and the rule of law is not for the frail or fragile. There are considerable personal and societal human costs, but the alternative is despotism, the human costs of which history has demonstrated to be substantially more severe.

President Trump, frustrated with Congress’ failure to repeal Obamacare, has begun to take unilateral action to reintroduce market forces into the health insurance market and pick at the pillars of Obamacare. His actions are a great first step.

It’s not about mass shootings, but about stopping the quieter deaths that happen daily.

Wisconsin lawmakers are currently considering legislation that would assist the White House’s goal of expanding apprenticeship in the U.S.

As a member of 11 cooperatives throughout Wisconsin, and a former co-op board member, I am concerned about a bill working its way through the legislature that would change the definition of a cooperative in Wisconsin.

In the world of Scott Walker, politics, not the public’s long-term interest, always comes first.

Paul Fanlund reflects on anecdotes that cover a five-day period this past week and connect to war and peace, racial tension, toxic politics and embattled American journalism.

The Sanders-Stein-Nader crowd apparently doesn’t think the rest of us on the pragmatic left are as righteous or passionate as they. They seem to think they can unleash some tsunami of support from huge numbers of the politically disaffected.

We deserve better than corporate boondoggles like Foxconn, and our government’s leadership needs to stand on the side of workers.

An important part of our commitment is to the young adults in this state. We want a significant share of Wisconsin’s top high school students to come and study at UW- Madison, so I want to be clear about how strong our commitment is to the top students in Wisconsin.

The case should have gone through the state court system using state constitutional arguments.

Sen. Ron Johnson should not let the American people down by putting the livelihoods of our most promising immigrants on the line. Passing the SUCCEED Act would continue the legacy of immigrants making America great.

Hopefully the US Supreme Court will see past the false outrage of the sinking political left and allow the State of Wisconsin and all other states take responsibility for what the Constitution allows.

The cumulative impact of our total tax relief in this and our past budgets is $8 billion.

While Dane County and other local governments are encouraging biking, the state government is going in the opposite direction.

Northern counties in decline. Attention must be paid, WisTax leader says.

Cross is saying what many had whispered for years: A UW System with 26 separate institutions is unsustainable.

Here are key arguments Supreme Court will hear. How would you rule?

It appears that people who thought that Wisconsin's strict Voter ID law would suppress eligible voters have had their suspicions confirmed.

The general idea seems to be that we should give the richest Americans and large multi-national corporations huge tax cuts, and then magically, the economy will somehow grow and jobs will be created. This has always been and will always be wishful thinking.

Forget about the skills gap. The overriding concern in Wisconsin and many other states is a “quantity gap,” meaning there simply aren’t enough working-age people to go around – skilled or otherwise.

The latest effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, is emblematic of deep political divisions over how best to provide health-care coverage to millions of Americans. However, that debate is not standing in the way of hospitals, medical professionals, insurers, entrepreneurs and others from working on better, more efficient ways to care for patients.

Natural disasters will happen, with or without climate change. The trick is understanding how to mitigate the effects of those disasters before and after they happen.

Last week, every single one of my fellow Regents attending our most recent meeting voted to approve a dangerous anti-free speech proposal that will, without question, chill speech at college campuses across Wisconsin.

The policy changes appear to have had a negative effect on student safety while not closing the gap in suspension rates between white and African American students.

Carol Lenz and Jim Bowmen’s recent op-ed, “Choice Helps Few Public School Students,” ignores a number of important details about school choice in the state of Wisconsin.

A class of parents cued into the performance of their local schools would be far more likely to overcome the problem of governance fragmentation than the alternative solution proposed by Ford.

“Business-like” approach reduces faculty peer review, threatens academic excellence.

The WisOpinion Insiders, Jensen & Chvala, assess Tommy Thompson's legacy in advance of Monday's premiere on Milwaukee Public TV of the documentary: "Tommy Thompson: A Wisconsin Life." The Insiders' "Two-Minute Take" is sponsored by the Wisconsin Counties Association and Michael Best Strategies.

The WisOpinion Insiders, Chvala and Jensen, debate how the Dem field matches up with Gov. Scott Walker. Sponsored by Michael Best Strategies and the Wisconsin Counties Association.

The WisOpinion Insiders, Jensen & Chvala, deliver their state budget winners and losers in this week's "Two Minute Take," brought to you by the Wisconsin Counties Association and Michael Best Strategies.

The WisOpinion Insiders, Jensen & Chvala, weigh in on NFL protests and Trump in this week's "Two Minute Take," brought to you by the Wisconsin Counties Association and Michael Best Strategies.